Chair of the Friends of Soibada, Tamara Sloper Harding explained this week, ''All we could do is put up a fundraiser page which, fortunately, people donated generously to, but we're still 8 thousand dollars short in meeting our current building commitments and then, atop that and Timor Leste being in lockdown, in March 2020, there was flooding in the capital which affected more than 1,500 households and caused significant infrastructure damage in Dili and surrounding districts.''
These have recurred again in April this year with more by dreadful flooding and landslides. This time over 8000 people are reported to have been left homeless, without food, medical supplies, shelter, clothing and are extremely vulnerable.
Religious organisations, Government buildings, schools are being used to house them. The government is providing humanitarian assistance to those affected, with the support of the community and NGOs. An active Covid community transmission outbreak in Timor-Leste had the country in complete lockdown when the floods occurred, an additional risk for first line responders and threat to community health.
''A shipping container has been sent in with replacements of what has been lost,'' Tamara said, ''It's on its way now. We would achieve nothing without the incredible volunteers we have helping us. Peter Randazzo is responsible for the water tanks, guttering and washing machine at the maternity clinic in Soibada. Even now back in Australia he continues to help and drove a truck to Melbourne in April with our donations for Soibada - reconditioned computers, blankets made by our own Soibada knitters, there was just an amazing response from residents.''
Friends of Soibada are also helping to build and restore educational facilities in the village and Tamara has extended the close date fore the fundraiser page.
''By employing and paying local builders to do this work, we're not only providing a permanent facility, we're helping local families through them earning an income. The construction of a Training Centre for Arts, Craft and Culture will not only provide a much-needed learning environment. It will provide jobs for the locals during construction, and the running of training programs. The skills learnt in the centre will provide business opportunities in the burgeoning tourism industry. It will empower the local community to work, train, feed and educate their families.''
''We are funding the construction of classrooms in the training centre and educational facilities, jobs during the building phase, families livelihoods, jobs on completion, and through these career-building education which leads to a financially independent community.''
When residents in Avalon Beach heard of the floods and realised PFOS could not do any live fundraisers last year, they wanted to do something more.
Kayla Visser, one of the musicians who plays with The Village Big Band, spoke to Tamara about the possibility of ding a concert now that events can go ahead again.
Local songstress Samantha Shaw, denied a chance to do another Songs for Soibada in 2020, and who has wanted to sing with The Big Band for quite some time, also jumped at the chance to do more for our sister village, and so the community in Avalon is coming together to the sounds of the Village Big Band to raise funds for our sister village Soibada in Timor Leste on Saturday June 19th at Avalon Bowling Club.
There is also an online site too at amazonissy.square.site/s/shop
Her dad Simon and mum Julia can arrange delivery to the immediate area or put it in the mail for you too; just click on either 'shipping' or 'pickup' if you are a Belrose local. You will then receive an email
If you don't want a 'sloodie' you can get a sloth pencil case (or use it as a make-up bag), sloth purse, a glow key ring, simple dimple fidget spinner or even just make a donation.
Soon you will be able to buy a cuddly plush sloth or even a plush llama.
There's some insights into the Amazon Shelter further down this page, but first, let's hear from Isabella herself:
Hi, my name is Isabella Coffey, I am ten years old and I visited Amazon Shelter in 2019 when we visited Peru and the Amazonian rainforest. Magali, the owner, showed us around her rehabilitation centre and we saw first-hand the amazing work that they do to save animals.
Due to logging and deforestation, many animals are captured, mistreated, or sold in the pet trade. Some of the monkeys have been burnt on badly insulated electrical cables, some of the birds have had their wings clipped and can’t be released until they have grown back.
Magali’s mission is to protect and rehabilitate all animals that come into her care and to successfully reintroduce them back into the forest. There is a lot of work, caring for and feeding all of the animals.
My favourite animal was a cute baby sloth whose mother had died and Magali was hand raising it.
Not only does the shelter do amazing work, Magali inspires other people to think of the Amazonian wildlife as something to protect and value. In this way, one person's dedication and service can really have a huge impact.
Amazon Shelter simply could not survive without donations and volunteers. They suffered a really bad year in 2020 when volunteers could not come to help due to Covid, then in February this year they got completely flooded and could only travel by canoe, nearly ran out of food for the animals and had to rebuild lots of shelters.
They really need more help!
So I decided to set up an online shop selling some gifts and toys which I thought I would like myself - hopefully you know someone who would like them too. All the profits from the sales go to support Amazon Shelter.
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